Dec 19, Kathmandu- The Ministry of Urban Development has launched the ‘Project to Promote Compliance with Nepal National Building Code for Safe Building Construction’ with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The project will play an important role in enhancing the knowledge and awareness of homeowners, construction professionals, and technicians.

It is stated that the project will help implement the building code more effectively in houses and buildings to be built by the Nepal National Building Code by enhancing the design, checks and inspections during the construction phase, supervision capacity of technicians, and quality assurance capacity of construction professionals.

The project was launched in 2021 by selecting seven local levels in the Kathmandu Valley (Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Tokha Municipality, Mahalaxmi Municipality, Tarakeswar Municipality, Dakshinkali Municipality, Suryabinayak Municipality, and Bagmati Rural Municipality) as pilot municipalities.

The project was launched in 2021 by selecting seven local levels in the Kathmandu Valley (Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Tokha Municipality, Mahalaxmi Municipality, Tarakeswar Municipality, Dakshinkali Municipality, Suryabinayak Municipality, and Bagmati Rural Municipality) as pilot municipalities.

There does not appear to be uniformity in implementing building construction standards, building regulations, and building codes that apply when approving new building plans. This has led to the fact that most municipalities do not have standards, and even if they do, the standards are inadequate or inconsistent.

In Nepal, there is a Nepal National Building Code and various municipalities and rural municipalities have their own building construction standards for building construction. To construct a building, the homeowner must first obtain a building permit from the municipality.

To obtain a permit, the homeowner must prepare a house design and map according to their needs in full compliance with the building construction standards and building code and submit it to their municipality or rural municipality.

The municipality checks whether the submitted design and map comply with the building construction standards and building codes and issues a building permit. Houses constructed according to the map, following the building codes and building construction standards, after passing the map through the municipality, are expected to be earthquake-resistant.